A Sentimental Garden
takes readers onto a bare-faced, unflinching journey through illness, grief, love, and the quiet strength found in the spaces between. It is a daughter's tender yet raw tribute to an artistic woman who could have been so much more in life, yet chose-wholeheartedly and without regret-to be a mother above all else. Maryella Zamudio was a Mexican immigrant who never wanted to leave her homeland, yet out of necessity she made the best of her circumstances, living her life with courage, honor, kindness, and a resilient spirit that never wavered. A cashier for twenty years, Maryella Zamudio eventually succumbed to liver cirrhosis in 2021, leaving behind both heartbreak and inspiration.This collection is a compelling and vulnerable reflection on the anticipation of grief, the experience of enduring it, and the long, uneven path of surviving it. It examines every facet of the impossible difficulties of being a caretaker in a country that so often does not care. It tells of a young daughter who is forced to become a mother to her own mother, and of relentless grief that carves its way into every moment. With dreamy, ethereal writing, readers are carried from the sickroom of the slowly dying, to the moss-lined forests of Sweden where grief was momentarily set down, and finally back to sun-drenched gardens where the fragile work of healing truly begins. Complete with photographs and surviving artwork of Maryella Zamudio, this is both a portrait of love and a testament to resilience.